The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet against five former police officers who allegedly conspired to frame former Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case, PTI reported on Friday, quoting unidentified officials.
The chargesheet names two former director generals of police, Siby Mathews of Kerala and RB Sreekumar from Gujarat, as well as former Intelligence Bureau officer PS Jayaprakash, former Deputy Superintendent of Police KK Joshua and police inspector S Vijayan.
The central agency had begun its investigation into the wrongful arrest of Narayanan and others after a Supreme Court order in April 2021. The order was based on a report filed by a three-member committee led by retired Judge DK Jain.
The court had tasked Jain with an investigation into the officials responsible for falsely implicating the prominent space scientist.
The latest chargesheet filed by the central agency invoked provisions of the Indian Penal Code related to criminal conspiracy (section 120B), wrongful confinement (section 342), voluntarily causing hurt to extract confession (section 330), creating fake documents (section 167), fabricating evidence (section 193)and criminal assault on women (section 354), PTI reported.
ISRO espionage case
Narayanan and six others were accused of selling secrets pertaining to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s cryogenics programme to women who were allegedly spying for Russia, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and other countries.
He and two others – Bengaluru-based businessmen Chandrasekharan and SK Sharam – were arrested in November 1994 on charges of espionage. The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In its final report to the chief judicial magistrate in April 1996, the Central Bureau of Investigation had said that there was a lack of evidence to substantiate the accusations.
All the accused persons were acquitted by a division bench of the Kerala High Court. In its order, the court had said there was no need to take action against Joshua and Vijayan.
In 2015, Narayanan moved the Supreme Court seeking criminal and disciplinary action against the officers. He accused them of falsely implicating him in the case. In September 2018, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that Narayanan was a victim of the allegations made by the Kerala Police.
The Supreme Court had said that Narayanan’s arrest was “needless and unnecessary” and granted him a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the “mental cruelty” he had been subjected to.
Narayanan subsequently filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala government’s decision to not take any action against erring police officers.
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